Ruth Calderon used to have a show on Israeli TV called החדר. The shows featured Calderon and a guest or two who addressed issues relating to Judaism and Jewish culture, Zionism, Jewish texts, and Israeli culture. Archived videos of the program can be found here. Below is an episode that discussed Bave Metzia 84a, Rabbi [...]
While many rabbis are arguing over who will be the next Chief Rabbis of Israel, the Rabbinic Cabinet of Memizrach Shemesh is raising a voice against the proposed Israeli budget. Below is a translation of the first paragraph: We, the below signed, are rabbis in Israel who come into daily contact with Am Yisrael. We [...]
In Moment Guy Ben-Porat writes about his new book, Between State and Synagogue: The Secularization of Contemporary Israel. Ben-Porat discusses secularization in Israel not as reflective of less religion, but of the weakening of religious authority. The expansion of commerce on the Sabbath, a thriving non-kosher culinary culture, marriages performed outside the Orthodox rabbinate, civil [...]
NRG has an article (Hebrew) about modern Israeli songs as musical midrash on traditional Jewish sources that includes links to sources. The article is based on source sheets found at Midreshet.
One of the most well-known songs associated with Yom ha-Zikaron (Israeli Memorial Day) is Haim Gouri’s Bab el-Wad, known by many through the singing of Yaffa Yarkoni. The song is a powerful and moving memorial for the soldiers who fought in order to bring supplies to Jerusalem during the War of Independence through Bab el-Wad [...]
Regev Ben-David has a very good post on the Tikvah Fund web site about pluralistic Judaism in Israel. (HT to Yair Rosenberg on Twitter) One of the most important things for American Jews to take away from this post is that Israeli Judaism is not and will not be the same as American Judaism.
Israel Channel 8 has been broadcasting a three-part documentary on Yeshayahu Leibowitz. Hopefully they will post the series online when it is finished. The introduction to the second part began with a few words about the relationship between Leibowitz and Isaiah Berlin. Apparently both of them studied Hebrew with the same tutor in Riga. Ephraim [...]
Below is an interview with David Hartman from 1987 that had a big impact on me when it was first published and still does to this day. Interview with David Hartman.-Pluralism and Religious Zionism Also see this post by Eliyahu Stern about David Hartman’s Zionism at Open Zion.
Haaretz has an interview with Ruth Calderon (see this previous post about her): Day after day, Dr. Ruth Calderon goes to her computer, usually in the early morning hours, and posts on her Facebook page passages from the Mishna and her own associations with the ancient compilation of the Jewish oral tradition that forms the [...]
I was recently able to see the Israeli singer Mika Karny at one of her few appearances in America and it was an inspiring evening. She and her accompanying ensemble performed modern Israeli songs that are based on Shir ha-Shirim from their new album Kol Dodi. Karny has been invited to perform at the prestigious [...]
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